relations with Eastern Bloc countries began as early as the mid eighties there was a certain openness to outside investment in many Socialist countries that were slowly being throttled by the lack of hard currency and dollars and who were seeking financing from capitalist countries and were therefore willing to open their borders to collaborations with Italian companies this not only attracted major industrial groups interested in cheap labor but also the clan which guessed that it could sink roots early in these countries and that they might someday become an Eldorado as in fact they did the clan made use of individuals above suspicion who began to commute between Italy and those countries they traveled to Poland Hungary and Romania especially to Romania where the clan invested the greatest portion of its money and these individuals during their travels there would acquire companies on behalf of the various Italian companies with Albanova in their names they would purchase real estate farmland unimproved land factories everything that was for sale they opened new factories the flow of money to these Eastern Bloc countries was immense because over there money from various illegal activities especially from drug trafficking could easily be laundered and ties were established with local eastern European organized crime and with the fall of the Communist regimes these local gangsters became part of the new ruling class

but the true qualitative leap would only come in a second phase when with the collapse of the Berlin Wall access opened up all areas of activity were liberalized and when that happened the organization was already in place for this new and challenging opportunity because in the meanwhile they had made a name for themselves they had already built foundations and so a number of people from my town moved there permanently to keep an eye on the business interests of the various Albanova companies in the different countries agreements were made with the local politicians the old bureaucrats who were in charge under the Communists and who now with the advent of Eastern Bloc capitalism had all become general managers chairmen of agencies for the development of foreign trade and things of that sort and a whole assortment of new companies and factories began to spring up but alongside them there were restaurants and hotels and night spots and casinos also in these countries people started selling off all sorts of weapons from Kalashnikovs to tanks to missiles and even MiGs weapons for which the clan became the main buyer at first for its own needs and later to venture very successfully into the business of arms dealing a very profitable activity especially during the war in the Balkans when weapons were being traded for drugs

they start bringing back to Italy people from the Eastern Bloc countries and not only the gift packs but also people with educations post-graduate degrees engineers and lawyers whom the clan uses in various ways in particular they let them run the farms and agricultural companies that they have taken over willy nilly just about everywhere in our region and so now these farming operations are being run by families of Romanians or Poles who lord it over the young Moroccans and other Africans who are doing the menial labor in the countryside the clan prefers to work directly with white people from eastern Europe it feels closer to them they seem better educated easier to control because it brings them to Italy with their entire families not alone and unencumbered like the Africans and the clan feels that someone who brings their family can be more easily kept in line because it’s one thing to deal with a young African who is alone in a foreign country and can cause all kinds of trouble and it’s quite another matter to deal with someone who arrives with their whole family wife and children from someplace where they weren’t even getting enough to eat and here you give them a house a good salary and they can work hard without any worries